National Media Institute of Southern Africa (Namisa) Best Blogger Award for 2015

Monday, September 3, 2012

Scrap sodomy laws - Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula

Kabwila-Kapasula - Remove sodomy laws

Scrapping sodomy
laws and including Men who have sex with men (MSM) in the fight against HIV and
Aids is vital if the war against the disease is to be effectively won.

Homosexuality is
currently a crime in Malawi and MSMs risk 14 year sentences when arrested so
the community operates underground despite having a high HIV prevalence rate.

Homosexuality is
also an issue that touches on patriarchy and how society constructs male and
female roles.

Chancellor College
lecturer Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula said this in Liwonde recently during a training
workshop on sexual minority rights and the media organized by the Centre for
Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and the Centre for the Development of
People (Cedep).

Presenting a paper
on the ‘Gender Perspective on Sexual Minority Rights Issues which included
sexuality, gender identity and sexual orientations, Kabwila explained how
research shows that there is a risk of bisexuals spreading the virus
to their wives or female partners.

“In Malawi, we are
using colonial laws that come from colonization. Our laws need to
articulate the current situation, we have Malawians who are bisexuals, gays,
lesbians, transgender, intersex....who can spread the disease.

“These laws need
to go....sodomy laws the way they are have an impact on blackmailing we have
many reports of MSM being blackmailed which pushes them further underground,”
added Kapasula.

She added that
Malawi cannot afford to define gender in a polarized way with the definition of
a woman being constructed by society.

However, churches
and chiefs disagree with Kabwila’s views and feel that homosexuals should
continue to be arrested because what they do is a “crime”.

In an interview,
Pastor Mario Manyozo of Holy Spirit Charismatic church said since the Bible
does not accept homosexuality, Malawi as well should not accept it.

“The Bible is the
Law of God. The Bible is not
amended. It’s a sin so also in a nation
like Malawi homosexuality is a sin, they should be arrested, even in the Bible
they should be arrested because it’s a sin,” said Pastor Manyozo while citing 1
Corinthians 6:16.

Many other
religious leaders are also against sodomy laws being repealed and want
homosexuals to serve stiff sentences for their sins. Others are of the view that repealing
homosexuality laws which criminalize the act is the same as permitting same-sex
marriages.

Trapence: Repealing sodomy laws not gay marriages

But in a separate
interview, Gift Trapence, executive director for Centre for the Development of
People (Cedep) observed how the gay issue has been politicised for the past
three years with a lot of misinformation using the public media where chiefs
and traditional leaders “were paraded to misinform the nation" on state television and radio.

He said it was
vital that gay people are looked at as equals just like any other citizen of
Malawi. Trapence also expressed concern how the issue of repealing the sodomy
law is being wrongly referred to as allowing gay marriages when they are two different things.

“The terms that are
being used you find a lot of stereotypes in those terms, even now we still have
a challenge because we are coming from that background...some think that if we
take out sodomy we are legalizing gay marriages and that is not the case
because in our case we have the Marriage Act which recognizes marriage as being
between a man and a woman.”

“There are
different steps to be taken to reach the level of recognizing gay marriages.
People refer to the US saying that they don’t agree, some states accept gay
marriages while some don’t. States agree on one thing, not
discriminating against someone based on sexual orientation, the issue of
equality and that’s what we are talking about repealing the sodomy laws are
inconsistent with our constitution section 20 that is the supreme law of this
land” added Trapence.